The headline-grabbing ugly episode involving Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide-cum-Man Friday Bibhav Kumar (resulting in his arrest) has predictably become a hot topic of discussion in the capital, especially since it took place in the midst of a crucial Lok Sabha election. It is well-known that Ms Maliwal has been associated with Mr Kejriwal from the very inception of the party but what is not so well-known to the outside world is that she has strained relations with the chief minister’s wife Sunita and Delhi minister Atishi, also an old AAP hand. Ms Maliwal, it is said, had been pressing for an upgrade for some time and a consensus was emerging about fielding her in the Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk.
She was accommodated in the Rajya Sabha instead while Chandni Chowk was subsequently offered to the Congress as part of the seat-sharing arrangement between the two parties. Ms Maliwal blotted her copybook when she left for the US in February and came back only after Mr Kejriwal was released. AAP leaders are convinced Ms Maliwal did not return earlier because of the prominence given to Sunita and Atishi during Mr Kejriwal’s incarceration.
It was against this backdrop that she was asked to give up her Rajya Sabha seat. Ms Maliwal did not take kindly to this proposal, especially since it is Sunita Kejriwal who is learnt to have mooted it. The rest, as they say, is history.
From all accounts, Bharatiy.